Black Adder
by celexes
Summary: Nisei has spent most of his life fighting for survival with his disabled sister. But when a chance meeting puts him in control of a powerful artifact, he embarks on an adventure that tests his courage and his morals. Contains slash and violence.
1. The Brothel

**Celexes**: Hello! So, this is my first time writing a fanfic in a while. First of, some warnings: There will be slash, of both the mxm and fxf variety. Of course, there will also be normal mxf romance as well. Sex scenes are NOT explicit, but since this is rated M there will still be adults themes. Most pairings are OCxOC, though there may be some with canon characters too. Anyway, enjoy reading and remember to review! Also this first chapter is sort of boring since it's just to introduce the characters. More action in the next.

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"Finished yet boy?" the old man said as he walked up behind the boy to observe his progress.

"Almost there…" Nisei replied as he concentrated intently on the bottle in front of him. It sat on top of a small flame and was filled with a bubbling colourless liquid. The boy sniffed the contents and seemed to be satisfied with their scent. He doused the flame and used a pair of tongs to remove the bottle from its stand place it on an area of the table to cool. "All done, Doctor!" he said cheerily, watching as the liquid slowly began turning a livid red.

"You're getting better at this," the Doctor replied as he stroked his walrus-like moustache. He adjusted the small round spectacles on his head and peered closely at the bottle, then nodded, as if affirming his earlier comment about the boy's skill. "Though I'm not surprised. How long have you been here? Five, six years?"

"Seven. Started when I was eleven, now I'm eighteen," Nisei answered. "You need anything else, Doc?" The boy had begun cleaning up his equipment, carefully washing them in the nearby sink before placing them back in their appropriate cabinets. He cleaned up some of the Doctor's equipment as well, which seemed to have been haphazardly thrown about the place. Before Nisei and his half-sister, Aylian, had come along, the Doctor's lab had been one of the messiest places in the brothel. Now everything was placed in perfect order—stands in the corner, bottles in the left cabinet, ingredients in right colour-coded by their type and effects. The organization was mostly courtesy of his half-sister, though Nisei had helped as well. The Doctor was now rummaging around in the pockets of his white coat, obviously trying to find something he wanted to give to the boy. Nisei sometimes wondered how the old man had could find things, let alone make his potions in a timely manner, before the two siblings had come along.

"Aha!" the man cried, finally pulling out a small bottle that contained a pale golden liquid. He handed it to Nisei, who immediately smelled the pungent odor of overripe honey. The young apprentice tilted his head questioningly at the Doctor. "Doctor's special super-healthy mead additive!" the man said, as if that would answer all of the youth's questions. "Madame hates the taste of medicine, so I made that for her instead. Tastes like honey but has all the properties of a health potion. Anyway, go give that to her." The Doctor made a shooing motion at him and turned away, obviously intent to start on a new experiment. Nisei smiled and rolled his eyes before taking his leave of the laboratory.

Madame Esperon was the high elf owner of the brothel—a tall, thin, rather unfriendly woman with a constant look of disapproval on her face. Nisei remembered his mother once describing her as "Shrewd as a lawyer and money-hungry as a merchant". Despite her menacing appearance, Nisei was grateful to the woman. The boy and his half-sister's mother was once a worker at the brothel. When she had died, the pair had come to the brothel hoping for some sort of help. Normally, the children of whores could either take up their parents' line of work (assuming they were old enough), or find their own means of survival. The Doctor, however, had taken pity on the siblings and asked Madame if they could stay with him in his flat above the brothel, with Nisei being his new apprentice. Madame had grudgingly obliged and, despite the fact that she disliked children, had given Nisei and his sibling the same care and discipline as a grandmother would.

Nisei actually sometimes wondered if why the Doctor worked in the brothel. The prostitutes were certainly not his only clients, as Nisei was often sent off to deliver a batch of potions to some wealthy noble or merchant. Certainly, the Doctor had enough skill and money to buy and start his own shop. From what he'd heard from the other prostitutes, the Doctor had made some sort of promise to Madame a long time ago, and was now keeping to that promise. The exact details of the contract were unknown, however.

Nisei walked briskly down the stairs and into one of the hallways of the large building. The place was always deathly quiet in the mornings, as the brothel employees had been working all night and were now taking their rest. The building was located a bit out of the way in the Imperial City, and one would have to know their streets and alleyways quiet well in order to find it. It wasn't that prostitution was illegal in the empire, per se, but rather that most of their wealthy patrons did not want people seeing them walking into a whorehouse for a late night rendezvous.

The young man's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of yelling coming from somewhere down the hall. He followed the sound, eventually coming to the section of the building that contained all the rooms for its residents. The door to a room at the far end was open, and in it stood the Madame with her usual sour expression on her face. She was speaking to a young female Dunmer, who Nisei immediately recognized as one of the newest employees of the brothel. Nisei kneeled down and hid behind a corner. As a wood elf, he was naturally talented at sneaking and hiding in the shadows, and he often used this to his advantage by eavesdropping to find out about the various going-ons in the brothel. He couldn't hear exactly what they were saying, but from their expressions it seemed the Dunmer girl obviously wanted something that Madame was not going to give her. They argue for a few more minutes before the Dunmer stopped and stomped away in an angry huff. Madame sighed and rubbed her temples, obviously not too happy about having an argument the first thing in the morning.

"Madame…?" Nisei asked tentatively, peeking out from around the corner. Madame Esperon looked up. She still had that dour expression on her face, though it was softer than the one she was giving the Dunmer.

"Ah, you must have the potion I requested?" Madame asked. Her voice was like the drum of an army drummer, commanding everyone to attention. Nisei nodded and made his way over to the woman and handed her the bottle he had been holding. She pocketed without even bothering to see if it was the corrected potion, her gaze now intently scrutinizing the boy who stood at least a head shorter than her. "You look like your mother," she commented in a very matter-of-fact tone. It was true, though—Nisei had inherited his mother's black hair and pale grey eyes, as well as her abnormally fair skin for a Bosmer. _She has some Nord in her, I bet_, he remembered the Doctor commenting once. The only hint of his father's lineage was the boy's aquiline nose, which spoke of good breeding on that side. Often, Aylian would tell him how jealous she was that he inherited most of mother's looks. Although she shared the same deep black hair, his sibling had gained more of the features of her Breton father than their shared mother.

Madame waved her hand to dismiss Nisei and closed the door as the stepped back inside her room. With his delivery service completed, the boy started walking back towards the Doctor's laboratory.

"Hey you," a silky voice called him from around the corner. The young man looked around confusedly, his eyes finally finding the source of the voice to be the young Dunmer he had seen arguing with Madame earlier. "You're the Doctor's apprentice right? You have that crippled half-sister?" the girl asked as she twirled a piece of her white hair. Nisei frowned. His sister was crippled, yes: Aylian was born without her arms due to a series of bad decisions made their mother had made while pregnant. But despite the birth defect, she was just functional and productive as everyone else (if not more productive, as Nisei liked to think). She was three years older than he was, and had taken care of him since he was born. Nisei certainly did _not_appreciate the comment about her being "crippled".

"Yes, that's me, and the name's Nisei," he replied, deciding it best not to mention his dislike of her vocabulary and start a fight.

The Dunmer seemed not seem to notice the acidity in his tone. "Name's Camael. I have a proposition for you. You don't make a lot of money working for the Doctor, right?" she said as she leaned back against a wall. Nisei didn't want to admit it, but it was true—his salary was pretty pure, and nearly all of it went into savings in case of an emergency. He nodded silently in answer to her question. A sly, calculating smirk crossed the dark elf's face. The woman sauntered closer to Nisei. For the first time, he noticed how revealing her clothes were. She wore a pale grey robe that revealed a large expanse of chest and almost all of her legs. Really, the only thing it seemed to cover was her stomach. She was probably a year or two younger than him, but her demeanor and outfit made her seem a decade older. "I have a little…business opportunity for you," Camael purred. She reached into the pocket of her robe and produced a little sack that jingled with the sound of coins inside. "Five hundred gold coins, if you could perform a quick errand for me. That's more than you probably make in a month, right?"

Nisei's eyes focused intently on the bag. Five hundred was a lot of coins, maybe even enough for him to buy and start his own alchemy shop so that he and his sister could finally move out of the brothel. Still, he didn't like that sound of her "quick errand". "What do you need me to do?" he asked.

Camael let out a screechy sounding laugh. "Oh, nothing much. I just have a…an item that I ordered, and I need someone to pick it up for me. I would get it myself, you see, but Madame wants me here since I'm new and need to get used to the house. You have to be careful that Madame doesn't see you with it, though," she said. Nisei narrowed his eyes. He could already tell that whatever this "item" that she wanted him to pick up was, it definitely wasn't legal. Could it be skooma? But there were plenty of prostitutes who used skooma, and Madame didn't seem to care as long as they did it in private. He knew accepting this offer was not a good idea, but five hundred coins…

"When do need it picked up?" he asked.

She grinned. "As soon as possible. I have a contact in the market district; they're having a fair today, he should be a Khajit in blue robes. You'll get your money after I get my item. Oh, and try to be careful. It's a very delicate item."

Nisei's frown deepened. A little voice in the back of his mind told him that he should not be agreeing to this, that is was a bad, bad idea. But he needed that money. Besides, this girl was sixteen—her 'item' was probably no worse than a few bottles of Skooma. "Fine," the boy answered. Camael nodded in approval and then briskly made her way past Nisei. The young man stood there for a few seconds and contemplated what sort of trouble he had just agreed to. _Can't get out of it now_, he thought to himself. He let out a sigh, and began heading towards the brothel's exit.


	2. Figures

_I don't think I can write answers to questions in the review, so I'll just write them here. xD Yes, there will be some Lucien x male OC. Also, this takes place around ten years before the events of Oblivion, so it will not follow the DB storyline. _

The market was unusually busy that day, mostly due to the large influx of vendors that had arrived from various locations around Tamriel to sell their goods. There were candied fruits and bright fabrics and all manner of exotic wares from the various parts of Thedas. The majority of the buyers seemed to be the wealthy nobles, although a several middle and lower class citizens had also stopped by to take a look at the goods. Nisei happened to be one of those people. He walked down the aisle of stalls, examining all the goods he couldn't afford. He wished he could buy some candied grapes to bring back to Aylian, but he had already spent all their food money and he didn't want to cut into their savings just for treats. No matter—after he got Camael's item, he could just use some of the reward money to buy something nice for his half-sister.

Camael had mentioned that the vendor with her item would be a Khajit. Now, Nisei was wishing he had been more specific, as there was definitely more than one stall with a Khajit behind it. One was selling hand-made toys and another seemed to be selling various types of rings. The boy was trying to decide between which of these two could have Camael's requested item when third, rather unnoticeable Khajit vendor caught his eye. Unlike the rest of the vendors in the market, who wore extravagant high-class clothes, this one was very simply dressed. His wares—a collection of weapons—also did not look any more exotic than what as normally found in the market. Nisei got the feeling that this might be the particular Khajit that he was looking for.

The causually walked up to the merchant's stand, pretending to look at his wares. He thought about exactly how to approach this. What was he supposed to say? 'My friend asked my to pick something up from you, but I have no idea what it is.' Yes, that would definitely work. Fortunately, Nisei was saved when the Khajit merchant asked him, "Does the prey be needing anything?"

Nisei noticed that the man had a very distinct accent, much different from the rest of the Khajits he'd met before. Now that he took a closer look, Nisei also noticed that this Khajit's colouring was very different than what he was used to. _He's bigger too_, the boy thought. "Yes, my uh, friend says you have an item for me?" Nisei answered.

"Ahh," the vendor replied, nodding knowingly. He kneeled down and searched for something that had been placed behind his stall. He eventually brought up a sheath and the sword that went with it, placing both in front of Nisei to examine. The wood elf raised an eyebrow. Was this what Camael had wanted? It looked like an ordinary silver sword; hell, even the sheath was just a plain black. It was likely expensive, but not special enough to warrant as much secrecy as Camael had about it. Not to mention, there was no reason why he couldn't show this to Madame Esperon. Most of the prostitutes owned daggers and shortswords, just in case an unruly customer decided he was not going to follow the rules.

The vendor was now looking at Nisei for approval. "Uh, yeah, I guess this is it," the boy replied. If it was the wrong item, he could just ask Camael for a better description and come back again. After all, it was still morning and she had said she did not need it until this afternoon. The vendor had placed the sword back into its sheath and was holding it out to Nisei. The young Bosmer took the sword and placed it into the belt around his waist. Out of the corner of his eye, Nisei suddenly spotted a figure standing a few feet away who had not been there before. He turned to see a figure in darkly coloured light armor standing several feet away from the stand. The figure had a hood on that obscured its features, and Nisei could tell neither its race nor whether it was a man or woman. He had the eerie feeling that it was watching him, but he could not be sure since he could not see its eyes.

Nisei decided it was best to head back to the brothel now. He thanked the merchant and began walking towards the street leading out of the Market District. As he headed out of the row of stalls, another chill ran up his spine. He turned around and saw the same hooded figure accompanied by two others. They were at a distance, but seemed to be walking in the same direction as him. Were the following him? Nisei shook the thought from his head and decided he was just being paranoid. Nevertheless, his pace quickened. He could see the large door leading out of the district now, but instead of heading towards it, he abruptly turned a corner and headed into an alleyway. Nisei looked behind him. The hooded figures were still following, and they seemed to be walking faster now. _Fuck_, Nisei thought to himself. He did know who these men—women—whatever they were, but he knew were definitely following him and it was definitely _not_ a good idea to let them catch him.

His mind quickly searched for a way to escape them. Nisei had grown up in the Imperial City, and knew all its streets by heart. Not to mention, he was a wood elf, and thus naturally very quick and nimble. He would not be able to fight these people if they attacked, but he might be able to outwit them. The boy sped up even more, now doing a slow jog. He zigzagged into several different alleyways—left, right, right, left, right—until he thought he had lost them. Nisei turned around; the hooded figures were nowhere to be seen. The Bosmer grinned triumphantly and slowed his walk. Whoever these people were, they could not keep up with him.

"Not so fast little one," a sinister voice made him stop in his tracks. Nisei whirled around, looking for the source, but there seemed to be no one. Suddenly, he noticed something moving at his side. As he turned, the invisibility spell wore off and he was surrounded by three of the hooded figures. Up close, he could determine that there were two men and one woman, all of them armed with dual blades. Nisei's breath caught in his throat.

"Hand us the sword," hissed the figure in front of him. Nisei stumbled back a few steps. _Just do what they say, and maybe they'll let you go. You can always explain to Camael what happened, _he thought to himself. But for some reason, he could not just bring himself to hand the sword to them. There was some sort of compulsion—some _desire_—inside him that said he could not give away the sword.

"No," Nisei answered, to his own disbelief.

The figure before him snarled. "That was _not_ a request," she hissed as her hands went towards the twin blades strapped to her belt. Nisei's hands slowly traveled to the sword at his waist. He had no idea why he was doing this. He had no training in combat. He didn't even know any offensive spells apart from a weak lightning shock. As his hands closed around the sword's hilt, he noticed the figures around him tense.

"Don't do that," the one to the side commanded. Were they afraid of him taking out the sword? It's not like he could have done anything other than swish it around and hope it hit one of them. Still, if him handling the sword made them nervous…Nisei withdrew the sword from its sheath, then stopped.

"You have nowhere to hide, little boy," one of men said. His voice was scratchy and ominous. _I'm dead I'm dead I'm dead_, Nisei thought. Then, _The blade_. Without another thought, he pulled the silver sword out of its sheath.

"No!" one of the figures shouted. But Nisei barely heard him. He suddenly felt a strange, warm sensation and watched as the blade slowly transformed in his hands. The handle turned from silver to a deep black, and Nisei saw had a pair of serpents with ruby eyes were now entwined around it. _Had those been there before?_ he wondered. The blade was now glowing with deep red markings which seemed to be in some sort of ancient language that the wood elf had never seen before. Suddenly, a strange sensation came over him. He felt as if his body no longer belonged to him, as if some other spirit inhabited it. Without warning, he thrust the blade forward. The sickening sound of flesh and bone tearing resounded through the alley.

For second, Nisei had no idea what happened. Then his eyes focused, and he realized he had thrust the sword through the stomach of the figure who was standing in front of him. In a panic, he drew the blade back and blood gushed out of the figure, staining both their clothes. The figure crumpled to the ground. Her other hooded companions stood there in disbelief. Nisei panicked, and ran.

He ran faster than ever had in his life, through alleyways and streets. He clutched the sword tightly in his hands, the blade still glowing with markings. He had no idea who saw if or even if the cloaked figures were still following him. All he knew was that he had to get as far away from the inner city as possible. Nisei burst out of one last door, stumbling down towards the banks of the lake. He was somewhere in the Waterfront District. His heart was hammering and his legs burning from his continuous sprinting. Had he lost them yet? He heard a thud, and then a sharp, crippling pain hit him the side and traveled up his body. The Bosmer looked down to see an arrow embedded into the left side of his body, just underneath his ribcage. He turned and saw the two surviving hooded figures running towards him, one of them already loading another arrow into his bow.

Nisei had to think fast. There were no guards around, and even if one heard his cries, Nisei would be dead by the time they got here. He could swim across the lake, but the figures would probably follow him. Not only that, but he had no idea what race either of them were, and there was a good chance one of them was an Argonian who could easily catch up and drown him. Then, and idea hit him. It would be a gamble, but Nisei was running out of options. He put the blade back into its sheath and took a fighting possible. He waited as the figures were just the right distance and…bam! Nisei released a lightning spell that knocked back both the men. It was a weak spell, and not enough to kill them, but it did stupefy the men and buy Nisei a few seconds.

Taking his chance, he dived into the water and swam furiously towards the other bank. A sharp pain in his side alerted the mer that the arrow was still gouged in there, but for now he would have to ignore the pain. When he had made it to shore, he crawled out and ran towards what seemed to be an Ayelid ruin.

Nisei ran behind one of the great white pillars and sank to the ground. Was he safe? He had no idea. It was likely there were bandits nearby, but for now they were not making their presence known. There was also a possibility that the figures had seen where he had run off to. But it didn't matter; Nisei was too tired to run anymore. Another sharp pain wracked his body, and the boy realized that arrow was still there. He grabbed one end and, clenching his teeth, wrenched it out of his body. The young man let out a cry as waves of pain washed over him. For a second he thought he might faint. Then, regaining his composure, he placed a hand over the cut and a warm blue light emanated from his palm. Although his true skill was in alchemy, the Doctor had taught Nisei several small healing spells. The one he was currently using would not heal his wound, but was enough to stem the bleeding. When he took his hand away, the pain had dulled and there was a large crimson stain on his side that stood out against the blue of his tunic.

_Fuck shit stupid! _his mind screamed. How could he have gotten himself into such trouble. _I knew it was a bad idea. Fucking Camael_. At least now he could see why she wanted the sword. Nisei closed his eyes. There was still daylight, and there was a high probability that some bandit would find him out here and kill him. But fuck it. He was injured, drenched, and tired as hell. And there was no way he could go back into the Imperial City now. _How did I get myself into this mess?_ His body slumped against the pillar as fatigue from both running and blood loss took over and he slowly fell asleep.


	3. Assassins

Nisei's eyes slowly opened. There was still daylight out, but the sun was higher. How long had he been asleep? He shifted slightly then let out a choked gasp as pain wracked his body. He obviously had not been out long enough for his wound to heal. Nisei closed his eyes again and laid perfectly still, waiting for the pain to subside. All his muscles ached from running and he had a mild headache. Eventually the sharp pain from his wound dulled and he was able to open his eyes again.

As he stared up at the sky, the young Bosmer tried to recount exactly how he had gotten hear. Well, he had been delivering a sword for one of brother girls named Camael when he was ambushed by a bunch of gender-ambiguous hooded figures who wanted to kill him, and now he was lying on the forest floor. Wait a minute. The forest? He had most definitely ended the chase leaning against the white pillars of some Ayelid ruins. Nisei's eyes widened. Had someone moved him?

The boy scrambled up to a sitting position, frantically looking around for whoever might have moved him here. Another burst of pain, however, forced him to bend down and grab his side in agony. He heard a deep voice laughing at him. The elf looked around frantically, one hand still resting on his side as the pain subsided. For the first time he noticed that he was lying on a sleeping roll, and that placed next to him were a few small items of food and his sword. Other than those inanimate objects, there seemed to be nothing but trees and shadows.

"Looking for something?" it was that same voice again. Nisei narrowed his eyes. He did not like talking to someone he couldn't see.

"Show yourself!" the boy cried, grabbing the sword. He was hoping it would start glowing again, but it seemed to have returned back to its normal state. "I'm warning you!" His voice quavered slightly this time with nervousness.

"Quick to violence. I like that," the voice replied. Nisei jumped back as a man seemed to materialize out of nowhere in the space in front of him. He was wearing black robes and carried a shortsword at his side. His dark hair was pulled back into a ponytail and his face indicated that he was of Imperial descent. It took a few seconds for Nisei to realize that the man had been using some sort of invisibility or chameleon spell.

"Who are you? Don't come any closer!" the boy was waving the sword at the man in front him and slowly inching away. Although he put on a tough face, it was obvious by the clumsy way Nisei handled the blade that he had no training in swordsmanship. The man seemed to realize this as indicated by the amused smirk on his face.

"My name is Lucien Lachance, and I have a proposition for you," the Imperial replied. Nisei narrowed his eyes. He had had enough of "propositions" for one day. The last time he had accepted a proposition, he had ended up running away from a bunch of hooded assassins.

"I'm not listening to your proposition until you tell me _exactly_ who you are—not just a name. And where are we anyway?" Nisei replied, his voice indicating that he was still on edge. He wanted to flee right this second, but judging by Lachance's sly smirk, he probably would not get very far before he was struck down.

"I am a…representative of the Black Hand," Lucien started. He paused for a second, trying to see if the Bosmer before recognized the name. The boy's shocked face gave a clear indication that he did, in fact, recognize the name "Black Hand" and was fully aware of what it entailed. The man continued, "As to where you are, a clearing in a forest. I had to drag you away from those ruins to a more secure area before we could talk. You see, my job is to find certain people…certain _murderers_, and offer them a place in our little family."

"I-I am no murderer!" Nisei instantaneously replied, his voice stuttering from nervousness. What the hell was this man, this member of the Dark Brotherhood, doing here? He had never so much as hurt a fly! How could this man think that he'd killed—Nisei's train of thought stopped. No, he had killed someone: that one hooded figure, back when he had been cornered in an alley. But, that did not make him a murderer, did it? It was sword! Nisei could distinctly remember the power within the sword taking over and making him stab that woman. There was no way he had done that out of his own free will.

"The Night Mother would like to think otherwise," Lucien replied to the boy's earlier assertion. The Imperial reached into robe and took out a rolled up piece of paper which he threw in Nisei's direction. "A map. Your initiation requires you to kill another, to prove that you are worthy. A male Imperial Legion guard this time. I've marked on the map where you are and how to get to your target. He patrols the more remote parts of the roads, and should be alone most of the time. " Lucien's face turned into a slight scowl, as he continued, "Know this: I am only helping because Ungolim seems particularly eager to have you. Any other recruit I would have left to die in that ruin."

"I'm not a murderer," Nisei repeated, this time with less gusto.

Lucien shrugged unconcernedly. "Believe what you will. I have given you a way to join a faction that might suit your interests. If you follow through with the contract, I will visit you the next time you sleep in a safe area. If you do not follow through, I will not bother you again. " The man turned and began walking away. In an instant, he vanished with an invisibility spell, leaving Nisei alone in the clearing.

_I am not a murderer_, Nisei repeated to himself. A warm breeze blew through the trees and rustled the leaves. It seemed to the Bosmer like the woods were laughing at how false his conviction was. He turned to the food that had been placed next to him. He grabbed the apple and scarfed it down then started nibbling on the piece of cheese; he had not eaten since last night. The pain in his side was still there, but he chose to ignore it. He placed the sword back into its sheath and then grabbed the piece of paper and unrolled it. The map indicated he was not far from the Imperial highway where the "target" did his patrols. _Am I a murderer?_ Nisei thought.

* * *

The Bosmer's eyes were moving continuously, from the map to the forest and back again. Despite being part of a race known as "Wood Elves", the boy had no idea how to navigate the woods. Indecision still rested on his brow as he advanced towards the roads. Was he seriously thinking of being part of a guild of ruthless murderers and assassins? He was a healing specialist for Arkay's sake! He couldn't even make basic poisons. But then again, where else did he have to go? There was no way he could go back to the Imperial City; those hooded figures—whoever they were—would be looking for him. Nisei's expression saddened. He couldn't go back; he couldn't see his big sis. What could she be doing right now? Normally at this time Nisei would be taking a break from his usually duties to play some games with her. Sweet Aylian, she must be worried sick. Nisei hoped she wasn't crying. He thought about the Doctor and Madame too. Would they wonder where he had gone? Would they look for him? Doctor was scatterbrained and Madame never seemed to care much for him, but they and all the other residents of the brothel were his family. He knew they would be worried about him.

Nisei snapped out of his thoughts when he noticed the road up ahead. He slowed his pace and lowered into a sneaking position. He might be terrible at fighting, but at least he was excellent at sneaking and evasion. He hid behind a nearby tree and watched the road for his target. After looking around for a bit, he noticed a pair of people in Imperial guard uniform standing near a rock on the other side of the road. One was a Redguard female and the other an Imperial male. The female was lecturing the male and her expression indicated she was exasperated. The male did not care for what she had to say.

Nisei bit his lower lips. Hadn't Lucien said the male guard would be alone? The Bosmer did not have any idea how to take out one guard, much less too. Not to mention that both of them had top quality armor and weapons and horses stationed nearby. He could use a ranged spell, but he doubted any of the mild offensive spells he knew would be able to kill two guards at once. And there was no way he could take on both with just his blade and lack of sword fighting skills.

After a few minutes of yelling, the Redguard seemed to realize that her argument was futile. She mounted her horse and trotted away. Nisei sank down lower behind the tree and waited until she had passed and was a sufficient distance away. His attention then turned back to the Imperial man, who also seemed to have been waiting for the Redguard to leave. The man took the reins on his horse and then began to lead it down a smaller path into the forest. Nisei stepped out from his hiding position behind the tree and silently followed the man.

They walked a short distance and eventually came to clear pool. The guard tied his horse to a nearby tree. Nisei watched as the Imperial stripped his armor and then sank down into the pool. The man let out a relaxed sigh as he leaned against the bank with only his head above the water. Nisei could now see why that woman had been so frustrated with this man—he obviously did not take his duty as a highway patrol too seriously. But the Bosmer could not dally. This was the perfect opportunity—the man was wearing no armor and his weapons were some distance away. Nisei pondered how to kill him. Should he aim a lightning spell at the water and electrocute the man? Or maybe just walk up behind and slit his throat.

A maniacal grin spread across the boy's face. Just this morning, he would have grimaced at the thought of murdering anyone. Now, the possible consequences of this had barely even crossed his mind. But did it matter? He was already essentially a fugitive now, he would not be able to see his family or home again; nothing he did mattered anymore.

Nisei quelled his thoughts and returned his focus to the target. His lightning spells might be too weak; throat slitting would be the best option. The Bosmer crept forward inch by inch, his footsteps painstakingly soft. He slid the blade out of the sheath which he had tucked into the belt that was tied around his waist. He was out of the cover of the shadows now and—_Snap! _Nisei's entire body froze. He had stepped on and broken a twig. What seemed like an eternity passed, but the target didn't even look around. He had not noticed.

Nisei continued his creeping forward. He was gripping the blade so tightly that his knuckles had turned white. He stopped. He was behind the target. He hesitated for a second. Then, in one swift motion, he brought the blade across the Imperial's throat. The sound of flesh being torn and blood spurting out echoed through the trees. The man's head rolled back and for a second, he seemed to be staring at Nisei with mild surprise. Then his mouth relaxed and his eyes deadened. He was gone.

Nisei dropped the blade and stumbled back. He felt nauseous. He thought this would be like the time he stabbed that hooded figure, but it was different. Back then, the sword had been control. Now, he had killed this man of his own volition. Nisei's knees buckled and he fell to ground, panting. After several minutes he regained his composure. With hands still shaking, his grabbed his sword and placed it back into its sheath. He then scrambled onto his feet and walked towards the horse. It had seemed tense, but had no intention of fleeing.

Nisei placed one had on the horse's neck and gently stroked it to calm it down. It had a bedroll strapped to one side and a pack of supplies on the other. One ground next to it was a silver bow and a holster with several arrows. He tied the holster and bow to his back using the strap that came with the holster. The horse had relaxed a little now. Nisei untied it from the tree and mounted it. The sun was beginning to go down now. The map that Lucien had provided showed the way to the next city; Lucien had said he would visit next time Nisei slept somewhere safe. His heart still beating and adrenaline still rushing through his veins, Nisei took hold of the reins and lead the horse out of the forest and down the road.


End file.
